Lawmakers intervene in teacher licensing

Diane Rado and Christy Gutowski, Tribune reporters

State lawmakers have intervened repeatedly in Illinois' teacher licensing process, going to bat in some cases for candidates who did not meet state requirements and applicants with criminal pasts as well as for relatives, donors and constituents, a Tribune investigation revealed.

The newspaper found nearly 100 cases in the past five years in which lawmakers got involved in the system that determines who can work as classroom aides, teachers and school administrators or hold other jobs.

The cases are outlined in hundreds of pages of documents and email exchanges obtained by the newspaper, dating to 2009, when House Speaker Michael Madigan's office helped push a young woman's licensing case to the head of the line.

Her dad, a Chicago lawyer who had previously donated to Madigan, wrote a letter asking the speaker to help expedite the license.

A number of the inquiries were on behalf of constituents trying to speed up the process. Some lawmakers defended the practice as good service for their districts, though critics say it's unfair to the would-be educators who wait their turn in line and aren't being served while the politicians' cases are addressed.

In other cases, lawmakers delved into qualifications and other standards, asking licensing officials to reconsider decisions. One lawmaker, former House Republican Leader Tom Cross, didn't get far with licensing staff so he went the extra step: He pushed legislation to change the requirements so a donor and another acquaintance could get licensed. The records show a pattern of legislative involvement facilitated by the agency that oversees teacher licensing — an area many consider sacrosanct, even in a state known for who-you-know politics and insider deals. The highly screened process involves criminal background checks, educator testing and training even after a bachelor's degree.

"The idea of someone trying to exert pressure or influence to get an answer to something that should be a completely independent process is wrong," said Sandi Jacobs, vice president for the National Council on Teacher Quality in Washington, D.C. She expressed shock at the breadth of lawmaker involvement in Illinois.

The Illinois State Board of Education said it gets inquiries once or twice a month from lawmakers, who approve how much state money public schools get as well as education legislation.

"Very little time is spent answering inquiries for legislators on licensing issues," the agency said in a written response to the Tribune.

But records show ISBE's governmental relations staffers often acted as middlemen between the agency and lawmakers or their aides, even providing them with personal documents, such as "deficiency" letters outlining what educators needed to do to get licensed.

"Here is the deficiency letter Jenae will be getting in the mail," governmental relations staffer Nicole Wills wrote in a May 4, 2012 fax to state Rep. JoAnn Osmond, R-Antioch.

Osmond intervened on behalf of her niece,Jenae DeRue, who was trying to resolve a hang-up over whether she had received a C or higher grade on required courses.

"Her mother called and asked, 'Is there any way to help Jenae?' " Osmond said. Her niece's out-of-state college had a different grading system, Osmond said, and ISBE needed to know if a grade was equal to at least a C. Osmond recalled helping get paperwork to prove her niece got a passing grade. DeRue's teaching license was issued May 21, 2012.

Osmond said everyone who walks in her office door "has the right to be heard," and that part of her job is to be a mediator for those who seek her help.

Not black and white

At the education agency, lawmaker cases became a priority, marked in emails by such labels as "Importance: High" and "Flag Status: Red," records show.

Elaine O'Shaughnessy started as a special education teacher but wanted to switch to middle school math. The stumbling block: ISBE wouldn't sign off on all the classes she'd taken to qualify. The agency at first approved a college algebra class but later decided not to accept it, she said.

Frustrated, O'Shaughnessy contacted her lawmaker and friend Chad Hays, a Republican from the Danville area who went to high school with her husband. The couple had made campaign contributions to Hays over the years.

"I am a peon," she said. "Of course, he wields more power with ISBE than Elaine O'Shaughnessy of Danville."

She emailed Hays on Feb. 12, 2013. The next day, records show his legislative aide sent the email to an ISBE governmental relations staffer who involved Kellee Sullivan, division administrator in charge of licensing.

A few days later, a licensing staffer told her government relations colleague that the office planned to meet to "discuss the math course work policies that impact Ms. O'Shaughnessy's evaluation."

On Feb. 21, O'Shaughnessy's husband's title firm gave $250 to the Citizens for Chad Hays committee.

She got the math endorsement March 7.

"It makes me sad that not everybody has Chad," said O'Shaughnessy, a math teacher at Jamaica Junior High, in east-central Illinois.

Hays said the request wasn't unusual. "I have constituents who walk in the door and call daily with frustrations about the bureaucracy in Springfield," he said. "When I go to the market to get milk, 30 people will talk to me."

As for the campaign contribution, Hays said O'Shaughnessy's husband has routinely given before or after fundraising events. Elaine O'Shaughnessy also said the contribution had nothing do with her license. Her husband Patrick agreed, saying it was "routine" and that he'll continue contributing to Hays. "He was doing what he's supposed to do," he said.

Division administrator Sullivan said standards and education trends change, requiring staff to reassess courses that can count toward a teaching license. "None of these course things are black and white," Sullivan said. She said her staff is typically not aware a lawmaker has made an inquiry on behalf of an applicant.

Of the cases reviewed by the Tribune, the state board said, "We don't see one in which a lawmaker's inquiry changed how ISBE interpreted a grade or course for acceptance and eventual license. We simply would not let that happen."

Pleas for help

Cross got involved in late 2011 on behalf of Steve Hanson, who'd been a math teacher, dean of students and coach at a private Aurora Christian school but wanted to make a career change. Hanson also wasfounder of a travel baseball organization in Yorkville. Cross' son has played with the organization.

Hanson started a master's program at Aurora University to get an Illinois administrative license, so he could become a public school principal, assistant principal or other top administrator. But well into his studies, Hanson learned he couldn't qualify — he needed two years of full-time teaching under a state-issued teaching license, which he didn't have.

In October 2011, a House GOP staffer wrote to ISBE, asking: "Is there any recourse for this guy?"

ISBE made it clear Hanson needed the teaching license, so Cross filed legislation on Hanson's behalf in February 2012. His bill stated that a candidate who began taking courses in an administrator program before Aug. 1, 2011 and completed it before Jan. 1, 2013 didn't need to have a valid license while accruing two years of teaching.

That fit Hanson's situation. The bill became law June 25, 2012, and Hanson got his administrative license a month later. He is now an assistant principal at Coal City High School about 70 miles southwest of Chicago. He said he contacted Cross only after he couldn't resolve the matter with ISBE or Aurora University. He'd already paid thousands of dollars for the program for which he thought he was qualified, Hanson said.

"Somebody screwed up, and they (lawmakers) can fix it, and they fixed it," Hanson said. "That's how I look at it."

Cross earlier pushed legislation to help a donor, Karl Karantonis, of Naperville, who wanted a license to be a chief school business official. ISBE said Karantonis didn't qualify because he had a master's of public administration rather than the required master's in business administration, finance or accounting.

But a bill filed in February 2011 inserted language so that someone with a master's degree in public administration could qualify. Former state Rep. Ron Stephens, a lawmaker on Cross' leadership team, said he filed the measure after Cross talked to him about Karantonis.

Karantonis declined to comment. In a statement, Cross said, "As a state representative, one of my primary responsibilities is to champion the causes of my constituents. In these two instances I supported legislation that I believed righted wrongs.

"The legislation was entirely transparent, it had multiple public hearings and was approved nearly unanimously by the General Assembly with overwhelming bipartisan support."

Michael Jacoby, executive director of the Illinois Association of School Business Officials, is critical of narrowly drawn bills. "I don't think it's good public policy to run bills to support one person's issue," he said.

'It's nuts'

Many cases involved delays in getting licenses, frustrating applicants as well as legislators.

If bureaucracy is the holdup, "I have no problem getting involved," said former Republican state Rep. Suzanne Bassi of Palatine.

Bassi intervened on behalf of her daughter-in-law, Jennifer Basile, an educator who needed to provide proof to Connecticut licensing officials that she once had an Illinois teaching credential. Basile had written to the state, but after a month, she emailed Bassi.

"The fact that she couldn't get her (Illinois license) — it's nuts," said Bassi.

Bassi's involvement spurred ISBE to send a letter to Connecticut in May 2009 verifying Basile had an Illinois license. The case went all the way to state schools Superintendent Christopher Koch's office, demonstrating the urgency given to requests by lawmakers.

"Any time legislators make inquiries within the agency, staff are expected to make senior staff aware so that they can ensure questions are answered in a timely manner and to prevent various divisions from working in silos," ISBE said in a statement.

ISBE said it takes about 120 business days to process licenses due to the volume of work, new laws, a revamped licensing system and the nature of reviewing transcripts. Educators also can cause delays by, for example, not submitting necessary paperwork.

Thousands of educators have gone through the long wait. But some have gotten swift action — with lawmaker help.

On August 31, 2009, Chicago attorney Christopher Patrick Ford wrote to Madigan about Ford's daughter Kaitlin, who was scheduled to start substituting that September at Chicago's Walter Payton College Prep. She had applied for a sub certificate in early June but never received it.

In an email to Ballinger-Cole, Wills noted applications are processed in the order they are received. "It would be unfair to do otherwise," Wills wrote.

Still, within hours, the certificate was issued.

Neither Fordnor his daughter commented. Ballinger-Cole, now at the Advance Illinoiseducation reform group, declined to comment, as did Wills.

Steve Brown, spokesman for Madigan, said the speaker gets "a ton of requests for all kinds of services." However, Brown said he had not heard of lawmaker involvement in teacher licensing.

Brown said if someone isn't qualified, "then regardless of who is calling, they shouldn't be approved. I don't know of anyone who'd advocate that."

Troubled pasts

The Tribune contacted a half dozen states where most officials agreed it's not unusual for lawmakers to ask questions about the process. In Michigan, Education Department spokesman Martin Ackley said "on rare occasions" a lawmaker asks about having an application expedited. "Our response is: 'No, we follow our set process with teacher certifications.' "

The Tribune found several instances of Illinois lawmakers becoming involved when educators had troubled pasts or lacked credentials.

In one of those cases, Sen. Mike Jacobs, D-East Moline, intervened in 2009 on behalf of Ian Scott, who had been disciplined by Iowa licensing officials and charged with falsifying academic credentials, records show. Even before the Iowa case, Scott got a job in the East Moline area as a substitute teacher, though he didn't have the proper credentials at the time, according to records.

By 2009, when Jacobs' office began calling on his behalf, Scott had acquired a substitute license and was pursuing a full-time license. But ISBE didn't approve that license and began the process to discipline Scott.

The agency said Jacobs "had no impact on our investigation or outcome." Scott was able to keep his substitute license for a year before the state suspended it in fall 2010 for two years. Jacobs didn't return Tribune phone calls, and Scott declined comment. ISBE said records show Scott voluntarily stopped using his substitute license in September 2009 and it has since lapsed.

In another case, James Duncan had gone to prison in Missouri for a felony related to passing bad checks and was trying to work as a teacher in Illinois. The felony didn't disqualify him from teaching.

Duncan was hired as a music teacher in 2009 in west-central Illinois but couldn't start teaching until ISBE granted him at least a temporary license based on his Missouri credentials.

The staff of then-Sen. Deanna Demuzio, D-Carlinville, called ISBE, "wondering what was going on," records show. Three weeks later, he got his license. "I would not attribute it at all to any kind of political influence or pressure," he said.

Demuzio, now Carlinville mayor, said she could barely recall the situation. "I think we were probably making the phone call to be courteous to him," she said.

Duncan left Carrollton Community Unit School District 1 near St. Louis at the end of the 2009-2010 school year. Records show he was accused by the district of insubordination, harassment toward an employee and unprofessional behavior. He was suspended but by then had put in his resignation, records show.